Additional Properties of God

    We are sentient.  Nothing exists that is greater than God.  Therefore, God is sentient.  A little more explanation may be necessary:  All the power in the universe is pretty much wasted if you are not aware of it.  There is no equivalency such that our sentience is worth as much as the ability to create suns or some other grand power.  This means that for God to be greater than us, God must be sentient.  Sections after this one will use different language in a reflection of our new understanding of God.  God can no longer be considered as an inanimate object, but must be seen as a being with self knowledge and will.  Coming into this section, we had four acceptable faith traditions: pantheism, panentheism, deism, and theism.  At this point, pantheism must eliminated because it denies a sentient God. 

    Recall that panentheism teaches that there is a spiritual aspect of God (resembling God the Father in Christianity) and a physical aspect of God (resembling the universe of modern science, with some mechanism for an infinite string of universes).  Both aspects have existed for all time and are mutually interdependent.  That is, God's soul causes, sustains, and moves God's body, while God's body causes, sustains, and moves God's soul.  However, there is a problem here, and the problem is this:  The universe, on its own, has no place for thoughts.  With modern astronomy and particle physics we can see over both the very large and the very small, and can see very far back in time.  Before the time of living organisms, there was nothing in the universe that could think, in any meaningful sense.  There is no system that resembles the wiring diagrams of a brain.  This is what is necessary for a physical system to have intelligence, which is a prerequisite for sentience.  This means that any source of sentience must come from outside the universe, from God, and the universe cannot be sentient on its own.  God is always in control.  If God effects the universe, and then the universe effects God, it was what God intended all along.  The universe cannot start the process of change on its own, because it has no sentience.  Because the universe depends upon God and not vice versa, it follows that there must be a time when there was no universe, and only God.  Even if there were or are multiple universes, God must have existed before them.  We now must cross off panentheism from the list of acceptable faith traditions, and are left only with deism and theism.

    We are now in a good position to describe many more properties of God.

    God is immense.  God is larger than the universe(s) in extent because God caused it (them). God must permeate the universe(s), because God moves it (them) and sustains it (them). By infinite, I mean it is impossible to make or conceive of a ruler that could measure God.  We would run into the end of the universe(s) first.

    God is eternal.  By this I mean that I could never find the beginning or end of God in time.  We would run into the end of the universe(s) first. 

    Note, additionally, that modern physics (general relativity and especially big bang cosmology) teaches that matter, energy, space, and time are all tied together.  When we talk about the universe before matter and energy, we must also conceive of a universe before space and time, and a time when the laws of Physics that we are familiar with do not apply.  This causes terms like before the universe and larger than the universe to become awkward half-truths.  It is more accurate to say that God is not bound by space or time.  God can exist inside space and time because God created them, and has power over them, but that is not God's natural state.  Not only does this mean that God exists everywhere is space simultaneously, be God also exists everywhere in time simultaneously.  As a consequence, God knows the future as well as God knows the past, and God does not evolve or grow with time. 

    God is omnipotent.  By omnipotent, I mean that there is no force in the universe or universes that is great enough to move God, if God does not want to be moved.  God created the universe(s) and God has total power over it (them), when God so desires.

    God is omniscient.  By omniscient, I mean that God is more knowledgeable that any other being in the universe(s).  If God is the cause of all knowledge, then nothing that is caused could learn more than God.  However much we learn, we cannot learn as much as God. 

    God is all-loving. 

Objection 1:

    By making God sentient, you are making God in your own image.  Isn't that awfully vain?

Reply:

    I am not making God in my image.  What I am saying is that God must be greater than me.  This is a statement of humility, not vanity.  It would be of greater arrogance to say that God is not sentient, because then I would have something that God does not.

Objection 2:

    You define eternal, infinite, omnipotent, etc. a bit oddly.  Normally people say all-powerful, all-knowing etc., without qualification, while you define these terms with respect to the universe or universes.  Why is that?

Reply:

    As I have defined the terms, they are completely defendable.  It is difficult to define (and therefore defend) God's properties outside of a universe, because I know very little about the outside of a universe.  On one hand, Big Bang Cosmology teaches us that asking about what God is like outside of a universe requires us to ask what God is like in a place with no space or time.  On the other hand, we know that God existed before space and time, and as such God is not bound by them, and must exist outside them.

Objection 3:

    God knowing the future contradicts free will.

Reply:

    Just because God knows what will happen does not mean that he controls it.  That is, just because I know that John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln does not make me responsible for it.  Just because I know that the sun will rise tomorrow does not mean that I cause it to happen.

Objection 4:

    There are examples of God changing his mind (Amos 7:3, Jeremiah 18:8, Exodus 32:14).  Since God changes with time, he must not exist equally at all times.

Reply:

    It is more accurate that it appears to the prophet that God is changing his mind, while in actuality God is placing a test upon the prophet, the city in question, or humanity.  When we pass the test, God relents, but God knew all along that we were going to pass the test and that he was going to relent.

    This does not mean that God is static like a rock or a corpse.  It is closer to say that God is static like the ocean.  That is, the ocean is always the ocean, but it is always full of energy and dynamism.

 This page was last changed on 2007/08/12